The Association of Legal Administrators (ALA) Annual Conference 2018 wrapped up last week and was packed with practical ways to manage and improve day-to-day operations in law firms. Modern legal administrators have a wide array of responsibilities and ALA had a session for just about everything. With presentations covering communications, financial, business and operations management, and human resources the only challenge was deciding which to attend.
There’s never enough time in the day to do it all, so my colleagues and I thought we could help out by offering our takeaways from our three favorite sessions of the event. We each were able to attend a handful of presentations, but were drawn to these in particular because they each offer guidance for firms pursuing the SmartLaw concept.
1. People, Process and Change Management
Presenter: Debbie Foster
Session summary: People must feel invested and empowered to change processes and pursue efficiency. Without their buy-in, change will be painful and ineffective.
Key takeaways:
- We must think differently about the way work gets done. Real change starts with encouraging innovation and accountability. Create an open discourse about processes that are no longer delivering.
- To change a process, get the right people involved. Don’t try to force change, instead invite ideas from the people most affected by process change. By talking through the challenges, questions and objections, you’ll make them a part of the bigger picture and build trust as change continues.
- Focus on efficiency and effectiveness. Find quick wins that help you do things better and do them right. Use the momentum from those wins to empower individuals to find ways to add value and remove waste.
What it means for you: Adopting a culture that embraces change is one of the pillars of SmartLaw and can be the hardest to practice. People are the key to real, meaningful and lasting change. You can’t steamroll your way to better processes, instead empower and reward creativity and initiative.
2. Bridging the Divide: Effective Collaboration Strategies for Legal Operations Leaders
Presenters: Leslie F. Brown and Christine Juhasz
Moderator: Timothy B. Corcoran
Session summary: Clients expect firms to keep them up-to-date at all times. Technology can deliver the seamless collaboration and communication experience that clients demand.
Key takeaways:
- Transparency inspires trust - Clients who use self-service collaboration portals to view updates are more confident in the work process and end product provided by the firm.
- Collaborate to manage expectations and budget - Offer clients real-time visualization of work progress with dashboards to manage expectations and empower budget control.
What it means for you: Collaboration platforms address two of the three pillars of SmartLaw: clients and technology. You can’t ignore the power of a tool that improves communication, efficiency, service delivery and client experience.
3. Why Today’s Impatient, Impulsive and Intolerant Clients are Leaving Your Law Firm
Presenter: David Avrin, CSP
Session summary: Client experience starts long before you know who the client is. Your firm must offer the experience the client wants even before first contact and through the life of the relationship.
Key takeaways:
- Fix everything - If you do things the way they’ve always been done, you’re already behind. From your website to your answering service, you can’t know what a potential client will interact with first, make sure there’s nothing creating a roadblock to contact. If your client hits a hurdle, they won’t jump, they’ll just move to the next firm.
- They’re going to talk, give them something to talk about - Once you’ve made contact, everything you do is up for discussion. Make it a good one. Ask insightful questions and listen to build trust while finding opportunities for creative problem solving. Go out of your way to make life easy and painless for them.
- Visibility wins - “It’s not who you know, it’s who knows you.” Meet clients where they are, that means taking advantage of free and low-cost mediums like social platforms and blogs. Be approachable, personable, welcoming, knowledgeable and helpful while using your experience to offer truly useful content.
What it means for you: Firms that practice SmartLaw have an unwavering client focus. You must know your clients and know yourself. Start today. Treat each client as an individual and offer service in the way that each prefers. Just as important, understand what sets you apart from your competition. Evaluate your website, visibility and service delivery and capitalize on what you do better than your competitors.
Here at HighQ, we know that legal administrators are constantly being asked to take on more tasks and responsibility within the business. Luckily, each session at this year’s conference delivered valuable insights to help legal administrators master more and transform the way they work. We don’t know about you, but we can’t wait to see what next year brings.
